Virtual and crypto-currencies, such as Bitcoin™, are gaining acceptance as viable mechanisms for performing purchase transactions and other financial services transactions. The transfer of units of these virtual and crypto-currencies between owners, which is essential to the ultimate success of these virtual and crypto-currencies, relies on a robust distributed ledger structure that, due to its public nature, redundant verification, and resistance to fraudulent activity, offers advantages over existing centralized server systems.
Despite its many advantages, conventional distributed ledger systems have several drawbacks, especially when used to track assets in secure, high-risk, and/or sensitive contexts.